Wichita eagle., 1887-08-11


| compact star cluster well known to the
owners of powerful telescopes as one OF
the most interesting and VIC derfu
phenomena to be found in the heave IS
To the naked eye it looks like faint star
In the telescope it appears as a spherical
mass of stars, with short, struggling
streams, also composed of stars, radiating
from it. William Herschel computed the
number of stars in this cluster at not less
than IA, 600 In the center they appear
SO compressed that it is impossible tc
count them. OF course every one of the
members of this starry swarm is sun,
and astronomers have sometimes piqued
their Imagination by wondering what
must be the condition of things prevailing
In such system of suns, and what results
flow from the inevitable laws of gravita-
ton there Could inhabited worlds exist
in a sun cluster?
Take the bright star Sirius, the most
brilliant fixed star in the heavens. Any
one who wishes can see it in the southern
heavens early in the evening at this sea-
SON Various estimates of the light of
Sirius have made it from one twenty
thousand-miilionth up to about one five
Observation-Disclosures of the suns light.
Suppose we adopt the latter figure as be-
ing the most favorable to Sirius. Then
comparing this with the fraction repre-
senting the light of star in Hercules as
seen from its nearest neighborS il COM
parison with thSt Of the sun, namely, one
three million-siX-h hundred thousandth, we
find that the light of the star is nearly
400 times as great as the light that Sir
Jus sends to US. In other words, If we
could visit the cluster in Hercules, we
should find that its stars, as seen from a
distance of 5000, 600, 900 miles, their Aver
age distance apart, would shine ], 400
times as bright as Sirius shines in our
sky
Sirius is probably 500 times as bright as
the faintest star that the naked eye per-
ceives on clear night. Then imagine a
star three times as much brighter than
Sirius as Sirius is brighter than the
smallest star you can see, and you will
have some notion of the brilliancy of the
stars in question as seen from one an
other.
A PERPETUAL DAYLIGHT.
Now let us suppose world revolving
around star situated at the center of the
cluster. Assuming that the surrounding
stars are arranged in a pretty symmetrical
way, there would be dozen of them
within a distance of 5000, ZOO, 600 miles,
and each of these would, as seen from the
world at the center, appear l 400 times
brighter than Sirius appears to us. There
would be upward of fifty stars twice as
far away, each Of which would be $50
times as bright as Sirius. Thus the stars
of the cluster, as seen from the center,
would go on increasing in number and di-
minishing in brightness, but as the total
number is limited to Il, 900 or $4,000, the
outermost stars would be approximately
135, 900, 600, 900 miles away. and each
would shine six times as bright as Sirius.
1t is apparent that there would be a
sort of perpetual daylight at the center of
such a congregation of suns. Let us see
about how bright this kght would be. OF
course our SuppOsittious planet might re-
ceive from the sun to which it belonged as
brilliant a daylight as our sun gives to
US, but what would be the illumination of
its nights, or, in other words, of that side
of it which was turned away from its
sun? Zollner has estimated the light of
the sun to be 61S, 900 times as great as
that of the full moon. This, upon the esti-
mate of the amount of Sirius light as
compared with the suns that we have
adopted, would give the moon about 5000
times as much light as Sirius.
EQUAL TO FIFTEEN MOONS.
Since each of the stars in the cluster
has 400 times the light of Sirius, at g.
600, 900, 600 miles distance, and there are a
dozen of them within that distance of the
center, it follows that these dozen stars
will shed above twice as mSch light upon
a world in the center of the cluster as the
full moon sends To us. And since the
light received from body varies inversely
as the square of its distance, while De
number of such bodies arranged in the
roughly spherical way we have supposed
would increase directly as the square of
their distance from the center. it is clear
that the amount of light received from the
whole cluster would be rs many times the
amount received from the twelve stars
nearest the center, as the radius of the
cluster exceeds 9, 000 600. 900 miles. This
would be about fifteen times, and so the
total amount of light shed upon the
center would be fifteen times the amount
shed from the first twelve stars, or about
thirty times the amount that the full
moon pours upon the earth. But only
half the stars of the cluster would be
above the horizon at once, and so the illu-
mination of the night sky on our imagin-
airy world would be fifteen times as bright
as the light of the full moon upon the
earth.
Tie number of stars visible to us with
the unaided eye on q clear night is not
over 5000, and the great majority OF these
are so faint that they require some atten-
ton To he seen at all. How contemplate,
then, is the starry armament presented to
us IL comparison with the glorious
heavens IN this sun cluster of Hercules,
where more than twice as many stars as
we can see blaze nightly with radiance
so brilliant that the faintest of them are
siN times as bright as the greatest star in
our sky.-New York sun.
Mr.. Hendley, an expert stenographer, has
especial charge of the immense mail ad-
dressed to the president of the United States.
Every letter addressed to Mr. Cleveland
passes through his hands He sends those in
the handwriting of Mrs Cleveland, Miss
Cleveland, Mrs. Folsom, Cousin Ben, or
BEST Man" BiSSell direct to the president un-
opened. All Others, nomatter how addressed,
as private" confidential or personal, -
are opened and read and indexei- Chicaso
Herald